Third Sunday of Lent: Discipleship of Hope in Christ

The following is the article that will appear in this week's bulletin at my parish, as the third installment of our reflection on the qualities of a mature disciple, as outlined in paragraph 75 of the RCIA.

Third Sunday of Lent:  The Discipleship of Hope in Christ

At baptism, we were called to become disciples of Jesus.  Adults preparing for baptism and children baptized as infants look to us to teach them how to become people who “in all things… keep their hopes set on Christ.” (RCIA 75)  A true Christian never loses hope, never gives up, because he or she knows that Jesus has already won the victory – that through his suffering, death and Resurrection, Christ has defeated sin and death.   No matter how much we suffer in this life, we know that Jesus has gone before us to prepare a place for us with God, where we and our loved ones who end their earthly life as baptized, believing disciples of Christ, will live, not die.  Nothing can overcome that promise.  What does that mean for our daily life?  Our baptism calls us to be beacons of hope in a very dark world.  While non-believers point to evil in the world, we must not fear to show that as Christians we are not afraid. 

Look at Jesus, not at the darkness.  Like the woman at the well, know that he is the Messiah, our Savior. Show your children and those preparing to become Christians that this is not a world of despair, but one of hope.  Even in worldly unhappiness, we can have a deep, unconquerable joy because of the “living water” Jesus gives us and because of what He did for us.

Joyce Donahue, for the St. John’s Liturgy Planning Committee